Motivation

“There is only one way to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.”—Dale Carnegie

Psych 101—guinea pig class. It was a general education requirement when I was in college. In this basic psychology class, you were required to participate in an experiment—you had to be an involuntary guinea pig for one of the graduate student’s experiments.

The day of my experiment dawned and I sashayed down to the psych building, planning to get out of there as soon as possible, so I could go to the party on the beach. I sat down in the lab and the young man running the test explained it to me: He would show me a series of two words side by side. Then he would show me only the first word and ask me to remember the second word. “Okay, let’s go,” I said, and ho-hummed my way through the list, thinking more about the beach party than his silly word list. When we were finished, I started to get up and go, but the grad student said, “Wait, we’re not done. Now we’re going to do the same exercise again, but this time I’m going to give you a quarter for every pair you remember.”

Now, my college days were long ago, and a quarter was real money. I perked up immediately! When he ran the pairs of words to remember, I concentrated on them. All thoughts of partying on the beach fled from my mind—I was totally focused on the task at hand, because I had a reason to be. I left the lab with seven dollars and fifty cents jingling in my pocket—about what I spent on food for a week.

Motivation is everything. People can produce extraordinary results when they have a goal in mind that spurs them forward. What is driving you? What drives your husband, your clients, your friends, your children? What reward are you after? How can you get your goals in alignment so that you can accomplish your goals together?

Acknowledgment is often a better reward than money. On job satisfaction surveys I have seen, employees usually state that praise and the satisfaction of a job well done are the primary reasons that make them feel fulfilled in their work. Money is usually third or fourth on the list.

There are lots of jobs you can take to make money—why did you choose the job you have now? What are the rewards of the job that fulfill your soul’s satisfaction? In every area of your life, why are you doing what you’re doing?

I subscribe to some PR lists and responded to a reporter’s request for experts to quote on AOL’s financial blog WalletPop on how to pay off credit card debt. Here are my tips:

1. List all the credit cards in order of interest rate, the highest one first. That’s the one you want to pay off first.
2. If you have one or two credit cards that have balances that are much smaller than the others, move them to the top of the list. You’ll pay them off first and you’ll feel successful that you accomplished this goal, and that helps spur you on to pay off the next one.
3. Pay more money to the first one on the list – I suggest double whatever you’re paying on the others. This will accelerate this one getting paid off and you’ll see it happening faster. Focus on the good feeling you get as you see that happening each month.
4. Write “Thank you” on every check. Be in gratitude that you were loaned money in the first place (some people were denied) and be happy that you can make a payment (some people can’t).
5. Stop thinking badly of yourself for being in debt. You’re a smart money manager who borrowed some money once and s responsible and paying it back now.
6. Only think about debts on bill-paying day. Every other day focus on how to make more money!
7. Celebrate every time you finish paying your bills – give yourself a reward for being a good money manager! (A little reward – not something you use a credit card to buy)

I was delighted when I received his reply:

Hi, Chellie,

Thanks for your email yesterday. I was kind of bombarded with replies yesterday and wound up with more experts than I needed… but your advice in the email is good, and I thought, “Boy, I hate to not use this.” So I wound up just now, pulling a quote from your list, attributing it to you, of course, and I’ve put a link to your web site in my story.

Geoff Williams

Well, that certainly made my day! It’s always a pleasure when one of the ships you send out comes back and unloads treasure on your dock. Hope you get lots of ships in today, dolphins!

Comments

I use to feel badly that money wasn’t my top motivator. I thought I was afraid to achieve or lacking courage. Chellie, you made me realize that motivation has many sources and putting a plan together and working to make a positive difference in my business discipline is the key to keeping me motivated .

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